Effective teaching strategies

Effective teaching strategies help to activate students' curiosity about a class topic, engage students in learning, develop critical thinking skills, keep students on task, engender sustained and useful classroom interaction, and, in general, enable and enhance the learning of course content.

Strategic teaching is a way of making decisions about a course, an individual class, or even an entire curriculum, beginning with an analysis of key variables in the teaching situation. These variables include the characteristics of the learners, the learning objectives, and the instructional preferences of the teacher. Once these variables have been analyzed, informed decisions can be made about course content, structure, methods of assessment, and other key components.

The process of planning a course is not an easy one. (Although 'the course' is the unit of analysis being discussed, the process of creating an instructional strategy works equally well for an individual class or an entire curriculum.)

The following recommendations can help make the lecture approach more effective (Cashin, 1990):

1.       Fit the lecture to the audience

2.       Focus your topic - remember you cannot cover everything in one lecture

3.       Prepare an outline that includes 5-9 major points you want to cover in one lecture

4.       Organize your points for clarity

5.       Select appropriate examples or illustrations

6.       Present more than one side of an issue and be sensitive to other perspectives

7.       Repeat points when necessary

8.       Be aware of your audience - notice their feedback

9.       Be enthusiastic - you don’t have to be an entertainer but you should be excited by your topic